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Japanese film director and screenwriter
- Masaki Kobayashi (小林 正樹, Kobayashi Masaki, February 14, 1916 – October 4, 1996) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai films Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967), and the horror anthology Kwaidan (1964).
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Masaki Kobayashi (小林 正樹, Kobayashi Masaki, February 14, 1916 – October 4, 1996) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai films Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967), and the horror anthology Kwaidan (1964). [1] Senses of Cinema described him as ...
Kobayashi Masaki was a Japanese motion-picture director whose 9 12-hour trilogy, Ningen no joken (The Human Condition: No Greater Love, 1959; Road to Eternity, 1959; A Soldier’s Prayer, 1961), a monumental criticism of war, constitutes the best example of his films of social concern.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Early Career Interrupted by War
- Career Resumed with Lengthy Apprenticeship
- Explored Controversial Subjects in Several Films
- Decade of Frustration Followed Successes
- Chronicled War Crimes in Documentary
- Remembered For Perfectionism, Social Commentary
- Books
- Periodicals
- Online
There is seemingly no documentation of Kobayashi's early life or personal life other than noting he was born on January 14, 1916, in Otaru, Japan, and spent his youth on the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan, in the port city of Otaru. In 1933 Kobayashi entered Waseda University in Tokyo where he began studies in philosophy and art. He was particu...
Following the war, Kobayashi was able to resume his career in film and rejoin the staff at the Shochiku studios. Beginning in November 1946, he commenced what would be a six-year long apprenticeship as an assistant director. Kobayashi worked under Keisuke Kinoshitaon 15 films. Kinoshita was not only Kobayashi's supervisor, he also served as his men...
Kobayashi went on to make four more films with Shochiku. By 1956 Kobayashi considered himself to be sufficiently well established in his career, comfortable enough to make what would be a controversial film about corruption within professional baseball, Anata kaimasu (I'll Buy You). The film that followed it was no less controversial. Kuroi kawa (B...
Kobayashi made a couple of other films before choosing to make a big budget picture. This blockbuster was Kwaidan (Kaidan, 1964), a film composed of four distinct ghost stories by Lafcadio Hearn, which were based on traditional Japanese tales. The project had been in the planning for years. With KaidanKobayashi also abandoned the gritty realistic s...
Kobayashi's next project was a disappointment, but the director redeemed himself with the film Tokyo saiban (The Tokyo Trials, 1983), a four-and-a-half-hour documentary epic. The film chronicles the events of the Pacific counterpart to the post-World War II Nuremberg Trials. During these war crimes trials before the International Military Tribunal ...
Among his frequent collaborators was Toru Takemitsu, a composer, and actor Tatsuya Nakadai. Kobayashi and Takemitsu began working together in 1962 on Karamiai (The Inheritance). Shokutaku no nai iewas the last film for both masters. Kobayashi was known as a perfectionist. He took his time on the set, possibly completing only three final takes in a ...
International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 2: Directors,St. James Press, 1996. World Film Directors, Volume 2 1945-1985,The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
Asia Africa Intelligence Wire(From The Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri), August 8, 2002. The Nation,November 10, 1984.
Columbia University: Japanese Film Masters, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ealac/jfm/(February 10, 2003). "Deep Focus: Masaki Kobayashi (1916-1996)," DVD Verdict, October 11, 2000, http://www.dvdverdict.com/columns/deepfocus/kobayashi.shtml (February 10, 2003). □
- Jeremy Urquhart
- Senior Author
- 'Harakiri' (1962) Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita. Though the Academy Awards were pretty bad at recognizing non-English language films in decades past, it still feels like they should've made an exception for Harakiri.
- 'The Human Condition I: No Greater Love' (1959) Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima. Playing out like a prisoner of war film but with its main character as captor (in a sense) rather than captive, The Human Condition I: No Greater Love is the first and arguably best film in the trilogy.
- 'The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer' (1961) Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Tamao Nakamura. The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer brings The Human Condition trilogy to a harrowing and devastating close, following Kaji as he attempts to escape Manchuria after the Japanese forces are defeated there.
- 'Kwaidan' (1964) Starring: Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Rentaro Mikuni. As should be clear from the images shown above, Masaki Kobayashi was a director who liked shooting his films in black and white, even as late as the early 1970s.
Jul 10, 2016 · Kobayashi was one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s, and explored the war and post-war situation by addressing controversial topics such as corruption, economic exploitation and the denial of war atrocities.
- Andrea Grunert
Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director, screenwriter and producer who has directed twenty films in a career spanning 33 years. He is best known for The Human Condition Trilogy , the Academy Award–nominated horror film Kwaidan and the jidaigeki films Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion .
Masaki Kobayashi was born on 14 February 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on 4 October 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.
